Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch
| "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by P. G. Wodehouse | |||
| Country | United Kingdom | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Humor | ||
| Publication | |||
| Publisher | The Strand Magazine | ||
| Media type | Print (Magazine) | ||
| Publication date | March 1922 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| Series | Jeeves | ||
| |||
“Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch” (also published as “Jeeves the Blighter” ) is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in London in March, 1922, and then in Cosmopolitan in New York in April, 1922. The story was also included in the collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate chapters, “Introducing Claude and Eustace” and “Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch”. [1]
Plot Summary
Introducing Claude and Eustace
Bertie has been unhappily engaged for two weeks to Honoria Glossop. He lunches with Honoria, and with his approving Aunt Agatha. Honoria dislikes Jeeves and tells Bertie to rid of him. Bertie tries to object, but Aunt Agatha agrees.
After Honoria leaves, Aunt Agatha tells Bertie that Honoria’s father, Sir Roderick Glossop, a so-called nerve specialist and a serious-minded man, wants to verify that Bertie is psychologically normal; therefore, Bertie must give Sir Roderick lunch the next day and behave well. Off-handedly, Aunt Agatha adds that Bertie’s cousins, the twins Claude and Eustace, hope to be elected soon to a college club called The Seekers.
The next day, Bertie walks in the park, where he is greeted by Eustace, Claude, and their friend Lord “Dog-Face” Rainsby. Bertie realizes he is late for lunch with Sir Roderick and returns home to find that Sir Roderick has not yet arrived and Jeeves has prepared the lunch. The bell rings.
Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch
Bertie and Sir Roderick eat lunch. Sir Roderick, who detests cats, hears a cat nearby. He complains that a hat that was stolen from him earlier, then hears a cat again. Bertie rings for Jeeves to come and explain the noise. Jeeves answers that there are three cats in Bertie’s bedroom, and they are noisy because they found the fish being kept under the bed. Sir Roderick is shocked, and moves to leave. When Bertie offers to follow Sir Roderick, Jeeves hands Bertie a hat, which is too big for him; it is Sir Roderick’s stolen hat. Aghast, Sir Roderick takes the hat and exits, asking Jeeves to follow and tell him more about Bertie. The cats run out and leave.
Lord Rainsby appears next, and explains that, in order to be elected into The Seekers, one has to steal something. He stole the cats, Eustace the fish, and Claude the hat. Jeeves had permitted them to store these in Bertie’s flat. Lord Rainsby, disappointed that these things are gone, asks for ten pounds to bail out Claude and Eustace, after they tried to steal a lorry. Bertie gives him money and he leaves.
It’s a rummy thing, but I’d been so snootered by the old boy and the cats and the fish and the hat and the pink-faced chappie and all the rest of it that the bright side simply hadn’t occurred to me until now.
Jeeves returns, and says his remarks to Sir Roderick have likely made Sir Roderick question Bertie’s sanity. Then, Mrs. Gregson calls; Jeeves tells her Mr. Wooster is not in, and the call ends. Jeeves infers from her agitation that Sir Roderick has called off Bertie’s engagement to Honoria. Bertie is thrilled that Jeeves has saved him. To avoid Mrs. Gregson’s ire, Jeeves suggests they take a trip to New York, and Bertie approves.
Publication history
When the story was included the collection The Jeeves Omnibus, when Bertie and Jeeves are fleeing Aunt Agatha's wrath, they go to the south of France rather than to New York. In Omnibus, this then led into the events of "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count" during which Aunt Agatha follows Bertie to a hotel in France to scold him on his failure to marry Honoria.[3]
References
Sources
- Wodehose, P. G. (2011). The Inimitable Jeeves. London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-33980-2.
- Cawthorne, Nigel (2013). A Brief Guide to Jeeves and Wooster. London: Constable & Robinson. ISBN 978-1-78033-824-8.
External links
- The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with numerous book covers and lists of characters